Work Text:
Regulus and Sirius had always been very close. Growing up in a cold, distant family without any love, they formed a bond that was difficult to understand. When Regulus was four and punished for not wearing his dress, Sirius sneaked into his room to give Reggie some of his old, outgrown clothes. Almost medieval looking shirts with a lot of ruffles and black trousers instead of the long, flowy dresses which Regulus hated so much.
Even though Sirius didn’t understand why his little brother wanted to be his brother and not his sister, he always supported him. Because what else was he supposed to do? The only person that they both had were each other and both of them couldn’t deal with losing the other boy.
So when Sirius left for Hogwarts and at the same time left the younger boy behind, it was inevitable that something bad would have to happen.
There was nobody left in Regulus’ life, nobody to hold him together and tame his temper. Nobody would “accidently” cut his hair and call him by his chosen name.
That circumstance led to the place where Regulus was finding himself in now. The heat that the wild flames around him emit wasn’t absorbed by the black-haired boy’s skin. Quite the opposite was true. It was as if the heat was even cooling, almost calming him down to a point where he wasn’t even fully aware of his existence. He couldn’t really remember how he got himself in this position. Why was everything around him on fire?
It all started when he was sitting at the dinner table, already dealing with his parents on his own for more than three months. He wasn’t doing well since a long time, but he thought that he was still hiding it quite well. Except for this night.
His black curls had grown too much since Sirius had last cut them, touching Regulus’ shoulders in an itchy way. The texture of the fool that Kreacher had prepared on this day was too floury and the smell was burning in his nose. The feeling that followed him as long as he can remember being alive grew stronger inside his stomach. It was what you would describe as fear, maybe, or anger. But it was more like a mix of both or something else entirely. The stinging and swirling inside his guts that never left him grew stronger and added on to his discomfort. Sometimes Regulus asked himself if this was even a feeling, or more like a monster inside of him. Not under his control, never, and also not leaving him alone. The buzzing inside just faded into the background when it wasn’t triggered, but it had never completely gone away.
In an attempt to calm his burning nerves down he clenched his fists so that his nails were digging into his skin. The pain wasn’t helping him to calm down, it only helped to stay seated and not anger his parents who were sitting opposite to him and did quite a good job at ignoring their youngest son. Well, at least his father did. Apparently, his mother had picked up on the fact that Regulus could simply not bring himself to put more of the food with the itching texture into his mouth.
“Can you just stop being so dramatic for once” It wasn’t a question, even though it sounded like one. But Walburga didn’t ask questions. She demanded. The problem was, that the way that she spoke was doing the opposite of making the black-haired boy’s situation better. The buzzing grew louder and a burning inside his chest was ignited with those words. He wasn’t being dramatic. He didn’t want anyone to notice that there was something wrong with him, especially not his parents. But hiding things had never been one of his strengths.
“I’ll give you three seconds to finally start eating or I’ll make you eat.” The woman’s voice was calm and quiet, like the moment before a bad storm. Still, Regulus was frozen by the overwhelming internal storm. His mind was racing while he was staring at the plate in front of him like there would be an advice found for what to now. All of his body was so heavy that he was unable to even move his hands anymore.
The three seconds went by faster than Regulus processed them, or maybe his mother didn’t actually wait so long. There was no sound but still the boy knew that Walburga had cast a spell on him. He was still sitting at the dark, wooden table but he was also somewhere else. In his mind, deep inside there was an empty, white room. The edges were blurry and so were the noises from the real world. But the quiet wasn’t holding on for long. Like an echo, the words “eat it now” were spoken directly in his mind. Something inside Regulus told him that he’d die if he didn’t follow his mother’s demand.
But. There was still this burning anger inside of him and it was found at the same depth as this room. The flames which the anger brought about started to set the small, white room on fire. And it didn’t take long until the whole room was filled with orange, hungry flames which seemed to not get enough from just Regulus’ mind. Walburga seemed to have noticed that something was wrong, the spell broke and the room inside the boy collapsed. But with that, the internal fire became reality.
The first flames that appeared began to burn holes into the tablecloth, reaching higher and higher from the ground as if they were hungry and full of the desire to destroy. It was the first time that the boy could see emotions on his parent’s faces. They both stared at him in fear. Walburga and Orion were one of the most powerful people and the fact that they were scared of their own son made even Regulus anxious of what he did and was still doing. The problem was, that the flames which had changed their colours to a deep, dark purple weren’t in his control. And they’ve never been. He had no idea where they came from.
Still, the heat that he could feel on his face was comforting him, but the flames never came too close to him. The whole room was filled with flames, threatening Walburga by coming closer and closer to her. They were climbing along the flammable things on the way. They weren’t stopping and kept on burning and burning and burning until they reached the old woman.
When the first flame burned into her skin, she started to scream but even then, her voice was so cold that even if somebody would have heard her, this person would be so frozen from the sharp, icy sound that they would not help her. The woman reached for her wand, but the flames seemed to have developed a consciousness, since they had already swallowed it and left nothing but deep black ash on the ground.
The flames almost looked satisfied, just by the way they burned in a lighter purple for a second and Regulus could swear he saw a satisfied smile in the flames. Maybe that was just his smile though. Even though he was distracted by the flames, Regulus could make out a lip movement on his mother's face. She tried casting spells without her wand, but the flames didn't like that at all and flicked in her direction immediately. They approached her faster and faster until they burned Walburga's foot. She had fallen to the ground, crawling away from the fire until she bumped into a wall and couldn’t save her limbs from burning.
The noises she made when the fire finally devoured her rang bells in Regulus' ears and made his teeth ache. The fire seemed to understand the assignment and a few moments later there wasn’t really anything visible of the woman. The burning silhouette moved like a worm on a fishing hook and didn't even manage to scream anymore. The black-haired boy could make out a weird, almost burned smell that itched his nostrils, coming from something he suspected to be the dead body of his mum in the slowly dying flames. With the growing hear and the screams of his mother still ringing in his ears, he slowly began to lose his consciousness.
When he woke up again, he found himself laying in his bed, tucked in like a little child. Regulus didn’t know who brought him back and how long he was passed out, and the only thing telling him that it wasn’t a dream was the smell of burned flesh that was still lingering around in the air.